A Robot That Comforts You At Death
Imagine lying on your deathbed with no one around to comfort you as you prepare to enter ‘the light’—quite a scary and lonely thought isn’t it?
Not to worry, artist and designer Dan Chen has designed a robot called the ‘Last Moment Robot’ that has been tasked to comfort and assure you that you are not alone as your life dwindles away.
Just kidding! The Last Moment Robot is actually part of an interactive installation by Chen called the ‘Last Moment Hospitable’, where visitors are invited to experience the dying process.
Visitors are first greeted by a “doctor”, who invites them to lie on a bed with their arms placed under the robot’s padded caressing arm.
As the ‘patient’ lies on a bed ‘dying’, the robot will begin its caressing action on the patient’s arm while simultaneously playing a scripted recording and annunciating the patient’s name.
According to Chen, he said that the Last Moment Robot was inspired by Paro—a Japanese robotic seal designed to comfort people who suffer from Dementia—and he wanted to test the idea of human intimacy replacement to “a much more extreme place”.
However, Chen adds that he has no plans to develop the robot for commercial use.
What are your thoughts? Eerie or ingenious?
Click to watch the video below:
[via Dan Chen]
"Give me a hard copy right there." - Blade Runner
Typographic print inspired by the movie 'Blade Runner'
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